Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8—The Georgia Bulletin, March 28,1985
Two Atlanta Churches Declare "Sanctuary”
Two Atlanta churches,
Clifton Presbyterian
Church and the Atlanta
Friends Meeting, a Quaker .
gathering, have announced
that they are public
sanctuaries for Central
American refugees.
This means that the two
Christian communities
have joined themselves to
a loose network of some
200 churches around the
country who have
announced publicly that
they will shelter refugees
from El Salvador,
Guatemala and other
countries in defiance of
current policy by the U.S.
Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
That policy currently
says that people from El
Salvador are economic
refugees, not political
refugees, and so are not
entitled to stay in the
United States. Those who
are denied political asylum
in the United States,
which is the vast majority
of those seeking asylum,
are deported back to their
native countries.
However, churches who
are a part of the sanctuary
movement, which began in
Tucson, Arizona in 1982,
say that the current U.S.
immigration policy toward
Salvadorans and
Guatemalans is sending
refugees back to possible
torture and death in their
homelands. The churches
cite the 1980 Refugee Act
which forbids the
Attorney General from
deporting anyone who has
a “well-founded fear of
persecution” if returned to
his homeland. They also
cite the fact that the
United Nations has
declared all those fleeing
El Salvador to be political
refugees because of the
degree of civil violence
that has taken place there
in the last six years, killing
more than 40,000.
Those who are involved
in sanctuary say that
Central American refugees
do not want to stay in the
United States perma
nently, but want to return
home when civil violence
subsides in their countries.
Because of this, the
movement is backing
legislation in Congress
sponsored by Sen. Dennis
DeConcini (D-Arizona)
and Rep. Joe Moakley
(D-Massachusetts) that
would halt the deportation
of Salvadorans for two
years while the
government investigates
what treatment deported
Salvadorans receive when
they return home.
Sanctuary supporters
are seeking “extended
voluntary departure
status” for Central
American refugees, which
is not permanent residence
in the U.S., but permits
them to stay on an
extended basis.
In announcing public
sanctuary, the members of
Clifton Presbyterian
Church and the Atlanta
Friends risk legal
consequences.
At the moment, church
leaders say, they have no
Central American refugees
within their communities,
although they said that
they have already been
helping and sheltering
refugees for a year or more
privately. Those people
have either moved on to
other areas, been helped to
obtain legal residence in
Canada, or disappeared
back into the city where
they are quietly living as
illegals.
In the Southwestern
U.S., where churches are
most active in the
sanctuary movement and
where many of those from
El Salvador and Guatemala
enter the country from
Mexico, leaders and
volunteers in sanctuary
churches have been
indicted following a
government investigation.
Jack Elder, director of a
shelter sponsored by the
Diocese of Brownsville,
Texas, Casa Oscar
Romero, was found guilty
in February of five counts
of illegally aiding aliens
and faces 30 years in
prison and $28,000 in
fines. In Arizona, 16
people have been indicted,
charged with seven
felonies and a total of 71
counts. Those indicted
include John Fife, the
pastor of Southside
Presbyterian Church in
Tucson where the
sanctuary movement
began in 1982, volunteer
workers, at least one priest
in Mexico and several
nuns.
Clifton Presbyterian and
Atlanta Friends, with their
announcement, became
the first churches in the
South to announce
themselves as public
sanctuaries. They were
given statements of
support by about 10
churches and religious
groups in the Atlanta area.
Some of the statements
of support came from the
Christian Council of
Metropolitan Atlanta,
Central Presbyterian
Church, North Decatur
Presbyterian Church, the
Open Door community in
Atlanta, the Community
of Hospitality, the New
Jewish Agenda, Atlanta
Clergy and Laity
Concerned, Oakhurst
Baptist Church’s Peace and
Reconciliation group and
the Mennonite Central
Committee of Atlanta.
The announcements by
the Quaker group and
Clifton Presbyterian came
at a press conference
Friday, prior to the March
24 anniversary of the
assassination of
Archbishop Oscar Romero
of San Salvador.
Archbishop Romero’s
denunciation of the civil
violence in El Salvador and
his pleas for peace for that
torn country have made
him an inspiration to those
who oppose military aid to
El Salvador and
particularly to those who
are helping refugees from
El Salvador.
The press conference at
which members of the two
communities read their
public statements
declaring sanctuary was
followed by a worship
service Sunday night,
March 24 at Clifton
Presbyterian Church,
placing the announcement
in the context.of faith.
i«k
A PROCLAMATION - Under a
banner proclaiming the concept of
sanctuary, Rev. John Storey, pastor
of Clifton Presbyterian Church,
answers questions at a press
conference held at the Quaker
Meeting House in Atlanta. Members
of the two congregations and
representatives of churches and
groups supporting the declaration
are seated.
300 Franciscans Pledge Sanctuary
NC NEWS SERVICE
Quoting from the Gospel of St. Matthew, “I was a
'stranger and you welcomed me,” more than 300
Franciscans pledged to offer sanctuary to Central
American refugees.
Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, minister provincial for
the Province of St. Barbara of the Order of Friars Minor,
announced the covenant made by 300 friars committing
themselves individually and corporately to the sancturary
ministry. Several houses of sanctuary will be offered, he
said in a March 15 statement, but no locations were
immediately announced.
“The Gospel call, ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger
and you welcomed me,’ compels us to take this step,” he
said.
"It's An Act Of Mercy," Pastor Says
BY GRETCHEN REISER
Rev. John Storey, the 36-year-old pastor of
Clifton Presbyterian Church, has 26 members
listed on the church’s active roles. By contrast,
each night for the last six years, Clifton
Presbyterian has given shelter to' 30 homeless
Atlanta men.
He shrugs off the observation that the church
has been caring for more people nightly than the
total of its own active membership. Clifton
Presbyterian’s nightly hospitality is supported by
many friends and volunteers, he says, who work
with the homeless in Atlanta.
But he does believe that the decision to become
a public sanctuary for Central American refugees
arose, in part, out of that ministry to homeless in
Atlanta.
The declaration of sanctuary is “a direct
outgrowth of two things for us, I believe,” he said.
“One ts that ongoing experience of offering a
home to homeless people and the other is the
concerns that have grown over the past few years
about the people of Central America. For me, it’s
directly related to Oscar Romero — his
assassination — and that of the four women
religious.” He referred to the murders of American
churchwomen in El Salvador in December 1980.
There have been critics of the sanctuary
movement, even within churches, who express
concern that it is more political than Christian,
perhaps extending hospitality only to those who
will express opposition to U.S. policy in Central
America.
But Storey, who is married and the father of a
young son, said that he and his wife had sheltered
a Nicaraguan man who “had worked for an
organization connected with Somoza,” the
right-wing dictator overthrown in the Sandinista
revolution. The man fled Nicaragua after the
revolution and the slaying of his boss by a
Neighborhood Defense Committee; he made his
way to Florida where he was denied political
asylum, Storey said, and then came to Georgia.
“He is a wonderful young man that I love and
keep in touch with and I praise God that he is in
Toronto now,” he continued. While they were
together, they talked politics many times and did
not see eye-to-eye, Storey said. “But it was a very
important lesson to me. Whatever my politics are,
when it comes to people — flesh and blood —
politics goes by the board. It’s helping your
neighbor. ”
Clifton Presbyterian began helping Central
American refugees quietly in 1983, after a period
of Bible study and reflection, he said. They then
began to consider becoming a publicly declared
sanctuary, which means that they may, in the
future, house refugees who will come forward
publicly and speak about their experiences in their
homeland and their need for refuge in the United
States. Whether or not Clifton receives refugees
who want to make public statements, they will
continue to help refugees who do not want to be
publicly identified and will do so regardless of
political questions, Storey said.
“It’s an act of mercy,” he said. “It’s a political
act because x>ur government makes it a political
act.”
He pointed out that political asylum is already
extended to many nationalities by the U.S., but
not, except in unusual cases, to Central Americans.
He said he believes the “fruit” of the sanctuary
movement Eventually will be that the “North
American public is going to force the Department
of Justice and INS (Immigration and
Naturalization Service) to stop sending people
back to chaos around the world.”
As the sanctuary movement has spread, there
have been questions raised by the government and
others about whether or not Salvadorans really
face death if they are deported home Storey
pointed out that a study by the American Civil
Liberties Union, which was limited, showed that
over 100 who had been deported were harmed and
52 had been killed.
“What if one of those is the person who came to
me for help and was turned down and was
deported and wound up dead on a road,” he said
vehemently. “I’m not willing as long as there’s the
possibility that one person will be killed.”
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